International agreements: Difficult time enduring

Several international agreements are prominent in the news, and will continue to be as long as Trump is president. NAFTA, the Iran nuclear agreement, the Paris Climate Accord are examples that President Trump rejected early in his presidency. His goal was to start over and make them more effective. The much improved NAFTA replacement, the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), is about to become law.
In early 2019 the U.S. announced its intent to suspend its compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) with Russia. In August 2019 the U.S. formally withdrew. It’s generally agreed in all U.S. political corners that Russia had continually been dodging compliance with the agreement for several years.
As pointed out in an earlier Graphic editorial, there’s another treaty at risk called “New Start,” the “New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.” Once again, it’s generally agreed Russia is not complying with the agreement in important ways such as “fake” measures to disarm weapons.
Even though most experts agree on Russia’s non-compliance with these agreements, critics believe withdrawing could create a nuclear arms race. It seems to me, however, that Russia’s non-compliance is proof the arms race is indeed back on, whether or not the U.S. withdraws from them. There’s nothing wrong with making an objective and sincere decision to try to “start over” when something important isn’t working.
Iran has been in the news every day recently. It’s tough and risky to recover from poorly enforced and “giveaway” agreements such as the Iran nuclear agreement, from which the President withdrew. I contend it probably would be riskier not to withdraw. In this age of constantly churning international agreements—defense, weapons, and trade—we must remember three things: agreements aren’t perfect, they have difficulty enduring, and it’s worthwhile to keep trying to get them right.

Lake Mills Graphic

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